Satish Kaushik: It is an achievement when High Court refers to your film

They say, cinema imitates real life. But sometimes, films influence real world, too. Case in point: Filmmaker-actor Satish Kaushik’s human drama, Kaagaz (2021), was recently used as a reference in the Delhi High Court. Recently, the court heard a plea where a woman appealed to rectify her date of birth incorrectly mentioned in her Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) marksheet.

Happy with the reference of the film in High Court, Kaushik says, “You feel a sense of achievement when a High Court judge refers to your film for a verdict in a court case. It shows how good cinema can influence society and bring healthy changes. In fact, after Kaagaz’s release, some people who were declared dead on official records, were announced alive by the district authorities in Uttar Pradesh. All this praise has encouraged me to tell the stories of trials and tribulation of a common man.”

In the judgement, the bench of Justice Chandra Dhari Singh quoted from Kaagaz, and said that the film “depicts the pangs and plight of people for papers at the pedestals of bureaucracy — the treatment that is meted out to poor people and how those without power and influence are made running from pillar to post”.

The Court also added that the movie was set in 1970s and it remains to be introspected how much the situation has improved 50 years hence. It directed the CBSE to correct the entries in the marksheet of the petitioner with reference to her corresponding birth certificate.

Kaushik’s film featured actor Pankaj Tripathi as a man fighting the system that declared him dead on paper.